Skip to Content

Related News

  • Related News

  • Greenpower subscribers vote to award Greenpower Grant to SquareOne Villages

    The Greenpower Grant, funded solely by voluntary customer subscriptions, supports local sustainability projects.

    Find Out More
  • EWEB reaffirms commitment to resilience with Wildfire Mitigation Plan approval

    The utility is testing new equipment, leveraging technology, and incorporating third-party expertise to bolster electric system resiliency to a range of threats, including wildfire.

    Find Out More
  • Vote now for the winner of the 2025 Greenpower Grant

    Get ready to cast your vote for the winner of the 2025 Greenpower Grant. EWEB is excited to announce the eligible candidates for this year's grant award! The winner of the Greenpower Grant will be voted on by Greenpower subscribers. Learn more about each origanization and their proposal before casting your vote.

    Find Out More
  • Water professionals showcase skills in Cascade to Coast Competition

    Representatives from local utilities competed to see who has the best-testing water, who can assemble a water meter the fastest and who find the most creative way to solve a routine problem that water utility professionals often face.

    Find Out More
  • How EWEB’s Fleet Services reached 200,000 hours without a lost time injury

    EWEB’s Fleet Services team reached a major safety milestone: 200,000 work hours without a workplace injury that results in an employee losing at least one full day of work. 

    Find Out More
  • Show More
Frigid weather drives highest energy demand of the winter so far

January 28, 2025 Aaron Orlowski, EWEB Communications

The sub-freezing overnight low temperatures in January led to the highest energy demand so far this winter as electric heaters across Eugene struggle to keep homes and businesses warm.

Demand for electricity in EWEB's service territory hit this winter’s the highest levels yet on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 8 a.m., when overall demand hit 475 megawatts. That day, low temperatures skimmed 20 degrees F in Eugene.

That level surpassed the demand on Monday, Jan. 27, when demand hit 469 megawatts, even though Mondays often bring higher demand as managers of commercial buildings reheat them after turning down thermostats over the weekend.

Surging electricity demand during this cold snap is a powerful reminder that in the Pacific Northwest, when temperatures fall, demand for electricity rises. In EWEB’s service territory, winter electricity demand surpasses summer demand because roughly three-quarters of homes have electric heating, while air conditioning is less common.

This season’s peak winter demand is higher than during last year’s notorious ice storm, when demand for EWEB’s electricity peaked at 448 megawatts on Jan. 12, 2024. During the ice storm, the power outages caused by the storm’s damage to EWEB’s electric distribution counteracted some of temperature-induced demand.

Peaks in the mid-400s are high, but still within normal levels for cold winter days. In the last five years, the highest electricity demand occurred on Feb. 23, 2022, when demand hit 483 megawatts at 8 a.m. That day, the overnight low temperature descended to 22 degrees. 

But even that level of demand is well below EWEB’s all-time record, which took place on Dec. 9, 2013, when temperatures plummeted to -10 degrees F. That morning at 9 a.m., EWEB customers were consuming 557 megawatts of electricity, as heaters worked full-bore to keep homes warm.

“This cold spell – and every cold spell, including last year’s ice storm – shows us the inextricable link between weather and both energy demand and supply,” said Brian Booth, EWEB’s chief energy resources officer. “EWEB’s energy team is always assessing electricity demand and supply as we look ahead hours, days, weeks, months, years and decades. Our job is to keep the power flowing, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.”

In the years ahead, as more and more customers electrify their heating systems, demand for electricity during cold snaps will only grow. EWEB predicts that energy demand will rise by 8% over the next decade, as more and more customers swap out their gas-powered cars for electric vehicles, and as industrial demand rises.

“These cold events test the reliability of our region’s energy supply,” Booth said. “To maintain the momentum of our region’s transition from burning coal and gas to relying on clean electricity, we need to keep that electricity reliable, whatever it takes. Without reliable electricity, people won’t switch to electric vehicles or electric heat pumps because of fear the power will go out when they need it.”

EWEB is studying options to bolster future energy supply.

To ensure EWEB continues to have a reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible supply of electricity for decades to come, the customer-owned utility conducts long-term energy supply planning.

In 2023, EWEB published its first such study in a decade. EWEB concluded that the foundation of EWEB’s energy supply should continue to be the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal agency that sells power from dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. But BPA is changing the energy “products” that it offers, and EWEB will need to choose a new one in 2025.

So, for the last year, EWEB has conducted analysis to see which of the new products best meets the utility’s energy needs. Regardless of which product EWEB chooses, the utility will use a combination of its own resources and BPA energy product to meet customers’ needs and contribute towards overall grid reliability. 

The crux of the decision comes down to who will meet the energy needs of EWEB’s customers on the highest demand days for the next 20 years. Those peak demand days typically coincide with the coldest days of the year.

BPA offers different levels of service to utilities like EWEB. In essence, EWEB must choose how it will meet peak demand: The utility can either take a do-it-yourself approach or rely on BPA.

One option is for EWEB to pay BPA a premium to always meet EWEB’s peak demand, no matter how high it gets. The other option is for EWEB to continue meet its own peaks, while paying a lower price for the other energy that BPA sells.

“Hydropower from BPA is the foundation of our energy supply portfolio and will continue to be as long as BPA maintains its position as a cost-effective provider of carbon-free power from the federal hydropower system,” said Ben Ulrich, the lead energy resource analyst who is overseeing the study of the BPA product options. “But we have a nuanced, difficult choice to make about how we will rely on BPA to help provide electricity for customers during those moments of extremely high demand.”

Related Programs

Our power supply
Learn more

Learn more

Learn more about where your electricity comes from.

Integrated Resource Plan
Integrated Resource Planning Process

Integrated Resource Planning Process

EWEB’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) will analyze possible energy resource portfolios with a goal of creating useful insights for long-term (20-year) electricity supply planning decisions.

Understanding peak power
Find out more

Find out more

Managing peak electricity demand is a critical component of achieving climate recovery goals and keeping energy affordable for all customers.